What's So Good About Good Friday?

Good Friday:
AM Psalm 95* for the invitatory & 22 • PM Psalm 40:1-14(15-19), 54
Wisdom 1:16-2:1,12-22 or Gen. 22:1-14 • 1 Peter 1:10-20 • John 13:36-38 (morning) or John 19:38-42 (evening)

It seems like a misnomer to refer to Christ's most important day of suffering as a "good day." Being nailed to a cross, bleeding, stabbed, ridiculed, and feeling abandoned by your father is hardly what any of us would call a good day. But, for us to have our best day ever—the day we meet our maker in heaven—Jesus suffered his worst day ever.

For us to feel truly loved and protected by God, Jesus had to feel genuinely rejected and hurt. Without Jesus acknowledging that he felt forsaken by the one entity to whom he was most attached, we wouldn't be able to connect to our Heavenly Father, which includes forgiveness and everlasting love.

Life is about opposites. You wouldn't recognize joy without having suffered sorrow. You wouldn't know the depth of being loved without having experienced the pangs of indifference. There is no faith without doubt.

As Christ cried from the cross, "Father, why have thou forsaken me?" we get to empathize with agony and hurt so deep that the ultimate cherishment of God becomes greater than ourselves. We know that after his death, Christ received God's ultimate sign of love—resurrection and a seat next to his Father.

Jesus doesn't hang on that cross alone. We hang there with him. We feel abandoned by God sometimes. We feel stabbed and hurt sometimes. But, because of Jesus' worst day, we know that God will always come through for us. It was one bad day that has given us a chance to have lifetimes of good ones.

Written by Lisa Nance

Lisa Nance is a freelance writer who tries to make every day a good day.